June Progress Report

Monthly Recap time.

June has kind of been insane, so I'm pry going to gloss over much of this as there's just been WAY too much to give it the usual depth.  

Let's start with one of the more major changes.  The Games UI has been further updated.  I'm not going to go crazy in depth with every screen because I'm still working things out to reach a "final" level.  But for now this is the main menu when you pause the game.  Of note I'd like to point out that Red's current SP is now displayed here at all times.  So if you're thinking about heading to a skill tree to learn some new skills you can simply pause and verify if you even have the points to spend first.  This can also help you to understand how different choices in the prologues can change your starting SP.

Last month I introduced some new features to the text windows including the ability to hide and skip dialogue.  The Log option was not working though.  This month I set that up properly.  It stores QUITE a bit of history and you can click on balloon icons to replay voice lines as well.  So if you accidentally skip a scene you don't mean to, you can go back and see/hear what was said from now on.

Continuing on the text boxes themselves have all been replaced/updated as well giving the game a whole new look and identity.  I'll briefly recap the updated battle system but if you'd like a more in depth look at that, please refer to the previous devlog that was dedicated entirely to that.

Red's equipment has been altered.  The 3 accessory slots of the current demo have been decreased to 2, and in the missing place is a new Arcana slot.  You can equip different Major Arcanas here to alter Red's skills and play style.  The Fool will be your default starting class.

Your inventory will also now have the Arcana Mirror.  Use this item to access and interface with your new Arcana Souls.

Once a class is selected you will be able to decide if you'd like to Rank up the class as well as what skills you'd like to equip to it.  The higher the rank, the more skills that will be available to you.

Battles have been restructured to have a focus on "Action Counters."  Essentially there is a limit to how many moves each "team" can take per turn.  By default each team will have 2 actions and generally each additional enemy/ally will increase the action count by 1.  This includes enemy limbs.  Taking advantage of exploits will no longer give access to free additional turns, but instead cost only half of an action, still allowing Red to gain additional actions without breaking the game in her favor, as well as giving AOE skills/magic much more usability.  For the full details on this again please refer to the previous devlog.

In regards to new stuff, Chapter 9 has been largely completed.  The only thing currently missing is one map as well as the voice lines that I have not set up just yet.  Chapter 9 will begin with an encounter with a distressed Cheshire.

It's a pretty fun scene and the actresses both did fantastic with the comical energy of it all.  Definitely one to look forward to.

But to fast forward a bit, basically Cheshire found a nice little treasure being guarded by a giant Glass Cat.  So she enlists Red to help retrieve this treasure.  A new silver weapon is all it takes to have Red eager to help.

Chapter 9 is the dreaded Swamp level.  And yes those pools of green will absolutely deal damage to you.  So you can safely navigate the swamp or explore and take some damage as you try to find some extra loot.

Some new assets were created for this area but nothing super worth talking about or showing off.  I'm just glad my dead leaves finally have a reason to be used!

Eventually you'll find your way to the nest of the Glass Cat and see that Red has completed her transformation into a bad ass monster hunter.

Unfortunately to gather screen shots of this section I had to load up an older save and so things aren't exactly displaying correctly here (notice the lack of crystals at the top noting how many actions you still have!) But I didn't exactly have time to replay the entire game to get to this point today.  But you can check out the bosses artwork at least!

As for some miscellaneous updates, I've begun work on the CG gallery feature.  Note this is NOT the memory crystals.  CG Gallery will be a way to keep track of your story progress by showing you if you've missed any events or CGs as well as allowing you to directly view images as you like.  The Memory Crystals will instead let you replay sections complete with audio.  And that is still under development.  As is this of course.  It's still early on and I'm debating how I'll format it but, it's functional at least.

I've created the artwork for a new Tarot Card, this time it's The Star and features artwork of Alice.

And last but not least, I've jumped ahead a bit and finalized the character bust for the Tinman who will be appearing in Chapter 10.  I couldn't help myself but to throw him next to Scarecrow even though they wont be interacting in this game.  Tinmans voice work is already complete as is now, all of the games voice work.  So all that's left is to keep producing the chapters and other content.

AS you can see, there's been a LOT of progress this month.  Between new art, enemies, redone battle systems, new mechanics and updated UI I've been incredibly busy.  Next month should allow me to focus up a bit more at least.  Tinman will be playable so I'll need to make his battle arts as well as a few CG's and a unique manor level to go with him.  We're getting VERY close to the end game now though.

After chapter 10 I'm not sure what I'll really be able to share as 11-13 contain the games final bosses and main endings.  Those are things I definitely won't be spoiling but, I'm sure I can figure something else out to share.

Until then, as always thank you for the continued support!  Please look forward to the full release later this year!